The Gaming Month Ahead – March 2015

This months main attraction is a little harder to pin down than usual; owing to the amount of exclusives running around. I would say that on the multiplatform side of things Battlefield: Hardline is the big thing this month. Visceral’s use of the Battlefield brand and engine to make a cops and robbers game that promises a non-linear single player campaign and a thrilling multi-player effort. I’m sure the main thing most people are going to be worried about is if it will be as broken as Battlefield 4.

Final Fantasy Type 0 HD is another big name this month, though only releasing on Ps4 and Xbone. That being said, it still looks and feels like a spin-off, rather than a full fledged title and I can’t help but lament its absence on the Vita or even the 3DS. The gameplay is an evolution of Crisis Core’s more active battle system and looks a more strategy minded than previous FF’s. I’m not a fan of the general aesthetic of the game. The uniforms, the buildings, the machines – everything looks quite bland; especially when you compare the look to other similar worlds with monsters and student fighters (FFVIII and Attack on Titan spring to mind) FFZero looks surprisingly unimaginative. There’s a definite feel that the game lacks the creative might of a Nomura (FF7,FF8) or even a Akihiko Yoshida (FFTactics, FFXII).

But enough about multiplatform – Pillars of Eternity is out this month on PC. Built by Obsidian, with help from Chris Avellone and 73,986 Kickstarter backers (myself included); Pillars hopes to recapture the magic and depth of games like the original infinity engine game (Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale etc) It looks beautiful and has been well received during its alpha and beta phases. Pillars managed to garner nearly four million dollars in backing and it’ll be exciting to see if it lives up to the many expectations of fans everywhere.

Back in console land, Bloodborne is dropping onto PS4 late this month. Bloodborne continues the Demon’s/Dark Souls legacy of rock hard games dripping with atmosphere and putting the emphasis on action and exploration, rather than cutscenes and linearity. Bloodborne is said to follow a model closer to the series original, Demon’s Souls, rather than the later multiplatform Dark Souls entries. This likely translates to a more hub-world approach, rather the camp-fire, open world mechanic of the Dark Souls games. Despite the more gothic setting and inclusion of firearms, the game still feels very much like a Souls game, and is an exclusive that I’m sure a lot of PS4 owners are dying to play.

In the land of remasters, ports and revamps – DMC: The Definitive Edition releases on PS4 and Xbone. Consoles can finally play this excellent game at the 60FPS that it was meant to be played at (as it was on PC ages ago) Definitive Edition adds a turbo mode, a Bloody Palace for Virgil and a host of other tweaks and changes to satisfy all but the most stubborn Devil May Cry fan. No word of any of these updates making there way onto PC. Ideally, most of this should be patched in to the existing title; but we’re hardly living in an ideal world.

Bladestorm: Nightmare updates the 100-years war strategy game for PS4 and Xbone, adding in a new campaign that eschews the regular paths of history for a more flightful fantasy. England and France team up to battle dragons and goblins and all sorts of mythical monsters. Bladestorm has also been announced for PC, but the date, while confirmed as later than console, is not yet fixed.
Speaking of late PC release – Dead or Alive 5: Final Round marks the series first foray onto PC. After the glitches surrounding the Xbone release of the title, it’ll be interesting to see how Tecmo fare on PC. Multiplayer is already announced to be delayed for post-launch. It’ll be interesting to see if they decide to add any crossplay with PlayStation – something that would give its community a healthy boost and would go some way to explaining the delay for online.